1. Introduction
Global climate change receives substantial attention from scholars and practitioners due to its effects in temperature and precipitation [
1]. Precipitation is one of the most essential variables due to its critical significance in global climate systems and energy cycles [
2]. Changes in precipitation have an impact on hydrological, ecological, and biogeochemical processes, either directly or indirectly [
2,
3]. Temperature change has a great impact on climate variability, and it is especially essential because of its role in the global climate system and energy cycles [
4]. As a result of the increased moisture content in the atmosphere, global warming may have an impact on the global hydrological cycle [
5]. Due to this, it is indispensable to quantify changes in temperature and precipitation to understand climate influence on various aspects of the environment.
The Upper Indus Basin (UIB) stretches through the watershed of Hindukush-Karakoram-Himalaya (HKH) and Tibetan plateau (TP), as this region holds the largest number of glaciers outside the polar region [
6], also referred to as the “water tower of Asia” [
7]. These glaciers feed a number of rivers and are a source of freshwater down streams. Three distinct weather systems influence the Karakoram mountains; the western winds, summer monsoon, and anti-cyclonic clear weather patterns. Glaciers in this region show features of both summer and winter accumulation forms [
8,
9,
10]. Analyses indicated an increase in winter precipitation and falling mean and minimum summer temperatures since the early 1960s. The latter is possibly attributed to further summer storms, although no periodic rise in summer precipitation has been measured [
9]. Compared to other glaciated regions worldwide, the glaciers in the Karakoram have average neutral mass balances and are characterized by a significant number of surging glaciers [
11]. This glacier stability and development suggested by [
9] in this region is called the Karakoram anomaly. Debris covers almost ~10% of the glaciers in the HKH region [
12]. A thin debris layer of 0.5 cm does not accelerate melting compared to clear ice [
13]. As the thickness of the debris layer rises, the melting rate drops. Similarly, there was no net mass loss in the glaciers of the Astore basin between 2000 and 2016 [
14].
The Indus River basin originates from the Western TP in China, runs through India and enters into Pakistan in the north, and ends in the Arabian Sea [
15,
16,
17]. Pakistan highly relies on this river being an agrarian country, and around 85% of wheat and rice receive water from the Indus River. It is the lifeline of Pakistan [
18]. The water coming from the Indus River is stored at the Terbela Reservoir for energy and agriculture purposes in Pakistan. From its source at the Western TP to this reservoir, this area is known as the UIB [
19] (
Figure 1). Having an extreme topography and heterogeneous climate, natural resources and mountain livelihood in this region are entirely vulnerable to climate change effects. Temperature rises and heavy rains trigger extreme meteorological circumstances linked to glacial lake outburst floods, and the frequency of such events has increased in recent decades [
20]. Research has been carried out in the UIB to identify climate trends over the time. Numerous researchers analyzed the historical trends of maximum temperature (T
max), minimum temperature (T
min) and precipitation in the UIB [
17,
21,
22,
23,
24]. The authors of Ref. [
21] observed increasing (and decreasing) T
max (T
min) in the UIB during 1961–2000. [
22] Also witnessed an increase in the diurnal temperature range during 1986–2015 at a rate of 0.34 °C/decade. The author of Ref. [
23] observed an increase in winter temperature at a rate of 1.79 °C per 39 years. Gilgit and Hunza sub-basin indicated trends consistent with warming, which are under the influence of the monsoon and westerlies circulation system. Astore basin is under the influence of the monsoon circulation [
16], where decreases in annual and summer mean temperature were observed [
25]. This shows that the temperature variations showed largely regional and seasonal differences in UIB.
Precipitation variations at different time periods are previously highlighted in the UIB [
23,
26,
27]. The authors of Ref. [
26] detected significant increasing trends in winter, summer and annual precipitation during 1961–1999 while contrasting results were detected by [
24] during 1980–2006. Furthermore, Ref. [
17] observed a precipitation increase in western UIB during 1995–2012. Moreover, Ref. [
28] observed a more robust decreasing precipitation at higher elevations. These contrasting responses of precipitation observed by different researchers observed using different time-period data, need to be assessed using the available historical records in the UIB.
On the other hand, The North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO) and El Niño Southern Oscillation (ENSO), Indian Ocean Dipole (IOD) and Pacific Decadal Oscillations (PDO) have broad implications in the regional climate of the UIB. These four climate indices need a better understanding of local T
max, T
min and precipitation in this region. Here, NAO is an indicator of oscillations from the Atlantic Ocean (mid-latitude westerlies). At the same time, ENSO and PDO are the influence index from the Pacific Oscillations and IOD as an index from the Indian Ocean, respectively. The 2010 floods in Pakistan were associated to a strong La Niña [
29]. The authors of Ref. [
29] identified the positive and negative correlation of NAO with winter and summer precipitation, respectively, in the UIB [
26]. The authors of Ref. [
30] explained the winter precipitation and ENSO connections where they found the stable disparity is between higher winter precipitation in El Niño years and condensed early winter precipitation in La Niña years. Furthermore, Ref. [
31] explained the effects of NAO on winter precipitation and Southern Oscillation Index (SOI) on the monsoon in the adjoining Himalayas. He further explained the correlation between temperature and precipitation until the 1960s which weakened due to quasi-biennial oscillations, ENSO and sunspot cycles, in this period.
According to the aforementioned studies, many researchers studied the trends and variability in temperature and precipitation. Yet, there are different contrasting results at different timescales. The identified gaps in previous studies are as follows: First, most of the previous studies focused on the trends either the inter-annual or the seasonal variations. Second, most of the studies were only limited to trends. In this study, the available climate data are employed to assess the trends and magnitudes in monthly, seasonal, and annual scales. The motivation and main reason this study is novel from previously published research are: First, the time series anomalies were assessed for temperature and precipitation in the UIB. Second, start of trend, abrupt change, and significant trends were assessed for annual and seasonal variation in the whole UIB. Third, accessing the homogeneity and single change-point detection for all stations on annual and seasonal scale. Fourth, the wavelet analysis is used to comprehensively assess the significant periodicity modes and their connections with global climate indices, i.e., ENSO, NAO, IOD and PDO’s influence in the regional temperature and precipitation of the UIB. We intend to offer and assess the detailed information on temperature and precipitation variability and change point analysis in both time and space in the UIB during 1955–2016, and its association with atmospheric circulation. Such information can help the government policymakers better understand the local and global climate variation characteristics and provide a theoretical basis for effectively adapting and mitigating climate change in the UIB.
5. Discussion
With the background of global warming, both T
max and T
min show consistent warming at a regional and global scale in recent decades, with the latter warming faster than the former [
4,
62,
63,
64,
65]. However, climate change in UIB exhibits incomplete synchronization. This study reveals widespread significant warming for T
max but cooling for T
min during 1955–2016 (
Figure 4 and
Figure 5). These warming and cooling results in T
max and T
min are consistent with the results of [
21,
22]. The warming in T
max is more obvious during 1995–2016 compared to the whole time period, especially in high-altitude stations. Further, warming in T
max is particularly evident in winter and spring, while cooling in T
min is much stronger in summer and autumn which supports the findings of [
17]. The authors of Ref. [
5] Observed winter warming in the neighboring region of Gansu, China. Where, such warming is ascribed to greenhouse gas emission [
7]. Rate of deforestation increased during the recent decade, which leads to an increase in surface temperature [
66]. The cloud condition, particularly the longwave radiation changes are also causing the temperature increase in the UIB, which has a considerable influence in the near ground surface temperature [
67].
Summer cooling was identified for both T
max and T
min in this paper, which was in line with the findings of [
17] in UIB. The authors of Ref. [
68] observed summer cooling in surface temperature due to rapid increase in irrigation. Results of monthly T
max indicate warming from November to May, both in low-altitude and high-altitude stations. This summer cooling also associates the positive mass balance of glaciers, especially in the Karakoram [
9,
13,
69]. On the other hand, Ref. [
14] found no significant mass loss in the glaciers of the Astore basin in the North-West Himalayan area, which is adjacent to the Karakoram region. This might be attributed to changes in the local climate of this location. Furthermore, T
max and T
min also suggests summer cooling in Astore with increasing precipitation. The authors of Ref. [
70] observed increased streamflow in winter and spring, and decreased during the summer and fall seasons in the UIB. This further indicates that the influence of prevailing climatic trends and their influential status in this region, which is mentioned above in associations to the glaciers mass balance.
In the UIB, the increasing trends are observed in annual and seasonal precipitation except spring (
Figure 4). These results are in good agreement with previous studies conducted in the UIB [
23,
27], and in neighboring regions [
5,
71]. The authors of Ref. [
27] observed a mixed pattern of increasing and decreasing trends in the winter precipitation in the UIB, but our results indicate a significant positive trend of 2.3 mm/decade. Winter precipitation in the UIB is transported through the westerly winds. The HKH and TP mountain ranges in the UIB act as a barrier to the westerly; therefore, downpours substantial precipitation that accounts for concentrated snowfall during winters in the UIB [
36]. The increasing precipitation indicates that monsoons in the region is becoming stronger. In some regions of South Asia, the monsoons are becoming less frequent but more intense in summer, and this increases the risk of climate extreme events in the region [
72]. Precipitation increase (and decrease) throughout winter (spring) is owing to changes in westerly winds; spring drying is primarily related with the strengthening and northward movement of the mid-latitude storm, as well as an increase in the number of dry days [
73]. It demonstrates that changes in the time periods may lead to inconsistencies in findings. The ongoing climate changes exert adverse effects on river flows, ecosystem services, biodiversity and glacial melting.
Our results displayed a strong correlation between regional climate with ENSO, NAO, IOD and PDO. T
max and T
min share almost a same inter-annual coherence of ~1–1.4 years with all climate indices. Moreover, precipitation shared significant coherence ranging from inter-annual to inter-decadal time scale. Among them, ENSO and IOD had inter-annual periodic coherences, while NAO and PDO also shared significant inter-decadal periods ranging from ~1 to 10 years. A recent study conducted by [
74] reveals the impact of ENSO on temperature extremes in Pakistan. He also demonstrates that the frequency of daylight (and nighttime) warm extremes is favored during La Niña events, when the anomalous Pacific Ocean SSTs are warmer than normal at 20° C. Furthermore, [
75] found a significant influence of ENSO in the year-round precipitation in Pakistan. They further observed the influence of AMO and PDO in the UIB. Furthermore, [
76] found major correlations between the mean temperature and global teleconnections during spring with NAO and ENSO. They further explained that the NAO might have implications on the certain monsoon months, particularly in August. In addition, another study on the temperature patterns over Pakistan observed a strong correlation of NAO in the spring in central and northern Pakistan; particularly with Tmax in the UIB, while ENSO affects from mid to late spring [
77]. The NAO and ENSO play a significant role in winter precipitation in the southern parts of Central Asia. At the same time, the warm phase of the AMO can significantly affect the Indian monsoon rainfall, which affects the southern part of Central Asia [
78,
79]. Another study explains the NAO and ENSO precipitation signal in the Central Southwest Asia are mostly linked with an intensification through westerlies originating in the Eastern Mediterranean and Middle East regions and moving eastward across the Central Southwest Asia region (including northern Pakistan) during the positive NAO and the warm ENSO phases [
80]. Both ENSO and NAO have effects on the winter precipitation in the Central Southwest Asia [
81]. The increase in northward moisture transport across the Arabian Sea is believed to be the cause of Pakistan’s strong upward trend in rainfall in the central monsoon area [
82]. The authors of Ref. [
26] observed a strong positive correlation between winter NAO and the winter precipitation in Karakoram and a negative correlation between the monthly NAO index and the summer rainfall at some stations in the UIB. Although we concluded our findings regarding the selected climate indices with the monthly T
max, T
min and precipitation in the UIB, the general behavior is much more complicated than observed. Therefore, further research is required to investigate the characteristics of regional climatic patterns contemporary with the global atmospheric patterns. This region needs more attention to assess the complex climatic patterns and their teleconnections with large-scale climate oscillations.